


Charlie & Hermione at the Burrow

by ElizColl



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Divorced Hermione Granger, Evil Author Day, F/M, One Shot, Twisted and Fluffy Feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-12 06:21:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29505411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElizColl/pseuds/ElizColl
Summary: Charlie and Hermione have a "moment" several months after Hermione and Ron's divorce. This is a side/outtake I wrote one night while working on a longer story. Posting for Evil Authors Day - meaning, this unpolished one-shot is all there is, and nothing else is coming of this.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Charlie Weasley
Comments: 7
Kudos: 21
Collections: Evil Author Musings





	Charlie & Hermione at the Burrow

**Author's Note:**

> I'm posting this for Evil Author's Day, a day when authors post snippets or one-shots they've been working on, that are unbeta'd and unalpha'd and may or may not ever be updated again. This Charmione one-shot is a side scene I wrote while writing another story because I was in the mood for Charmione. It totally didn't fit the story, but I hung onto it, and I'm posting it now as an unbeta'd one-shot because, why not?

"Hermione, dear, it's lovely to see you!" Molly came over and engulfed her in a suffocating hug, which Hermione returned in full. She had started calling Molly "Mum" about five years into her marriage, and no divorce would ever change that.

Hugging her back tightly, Hermione said, "It's great to see you too, Mum."

"Harry, Gin, and Ron said the Quidditch game was excellent, and that Rose scored several goals." Molly's eyes were proud as she spoke of her granddaughter. "It's too bad they lost, but Ron said Rose and Hugo weren't too broken up over it. He thinks Hugo will end up on the team next season once he's a second year. Oh, I'm so happy my grandchildren are enjoying their time at Hogwarts."

A nostalgic look graced her face, before she grabbed some items from the counter. "Here," Molly said, handing Hermione an armful of placemats and flatware. "I've put everyone to work so we can spend more time with Charlie before he leaves tomorrow morning for his holiday. Can you set the table, dear? There are 11 of us tonight."

Hermione nodded and stepped over to the dining table, magically expanding it to seat 11 adults, and floating the placemats and flatware in front of each chair. All the siblings except Bill had managed to make it to the Burrow for dinner tonight; Charlie rarely left the dragon reserve to visit home, and when he did, it was a big event. Wandering back the kitchen, Hermione found everyone occupied with dinner prep and asked Molly what else she could do.

Looking around, Molly said, "Nothing dear. Why don't you go find Arthur and Charlie out in the shed. I'm sure Charlie would love to see you."

Hermione slowly wandered through the yard to Arthur's shed, wondering what magical adaptation of Muggle technology Arthur would be showing Charlie tonight; it was always something new. She heard muffled voices as she walked through the door, and she made her way to the far corner where two red heads poked up above the piles of tools and objects that filled the shed's interior. She reached them and stayed silent as they conversed, unaware of her presence behind their backs.

"Just… there," Arthur breathed, concentrating intently on whatever was on the worktop in front of him.

Charlie was silent, attention focused on the object Arthur was working on. Suddenly, a bright glow lit up the shed, flashed a blinding white for a millisecond, and then dimmed back to a paler golden glow, underlighting the faces of the two Weasley men.

Hermione cleared her throat, making her presence known. The men both startled and turned around.

Charlie's face broke into a wide grin, and he bounded over to her, enveloping her in a powerful hug, his broad muscled body dwarfing her with his dragon-tamer strength. "Mum said you'd be here tonight, but I wondered if you'd decided not to come when you didn't appear with Ginny, Harry, and Ron."

"I was just finishing up a conversation in Hogsmeade. I wouldn't miss seeing you, Charlie. It's so good to be with you again!"

Charlie pulled back and looked her over, checking her for signs of ill health, given the chaos of the past year with her and Ron's divorce. "You look a bit skinnier than I last saw you, but not unhealthy."

She rolled her eyes at him. "I'm fine, Charlie. No one ever died from a divorce."

His eyes roamed over her again. "You look fairly happy. A bit more so than Ron." His eyes softened. "I was so sorry to hear that you two split up, Hermione. But I'm glad you both seem okay, and I'm happy it's amicable enough that I still get to see you."

Hermione chuckled and pulled Arthur into the conversation. "You'll always be my family — my mum, dad," she nodded at Arthur, "and siblings in the Wizarding world. No divorce will ever change that."

Arthur's face expressed a loving pride, and he stepped forward and gave Hermione a light hug. Unable to contain his excitement over his Muggle/magical experiments, he pulled her over to his worktop. "Come take a look at this, dearie. I think you'll especially appreciate my magical modification here."

Hermione saw a toaster sitting on the worktop, and looked at Arthur in question.

"You call this a 'toaster,' right?" Arthur asked.

Hermione nodded, suppressing a giggle.

Arthur continued, "I've imbued it with magic so it can crisp up anything you want, at the correct amount of toastiness, in just five seconds."

Hermione glanced at Charlie, trying to figure out if this was really a great magical achievement or just Arthur being a bit… overly enthusiastic about Muggle objects. Charlie raised his brows and smirked at her, more humored than anything else by his father's antics.

"That's amazing, Dad," Hermione responded. "How'd you do that?"

Arthur launched into an explanation of his modifications, clearly excited by what he'd done, while Hermione listened and Charlie moved behind her and rubbed her shoulders through Arthur's monologue. Charlie seemed to provide the comfort Hermione had been seeking recently — he made her feel like her life hadn't changed 180 degrees since splitting with Ron after 20-plus years together. Hermione listened to Arthur, thrilling in his joy over such simple things, and got lost in Charlie's touch kneading her shoulders. At least her brother-in-law was the same as he'd ever been.

After a minute or two of explanation, Arthur smiled. "Well, Molly's probably got dinner close to being ready by now." He gestured toward the door. "Let's go see what we can do to help." The three of them made their way back to the house.

Dinner was the most enjoyable time she'd had at the Burrow in quite awhile. Charlie's presence, and a recent invitation from Harry for a breakfast with just the two of them, contributed to her feeling more at ease than she had in a long time. Leaning on others was something she probably needed to do more often. She had closed in on herself during and after the divorce, and opening up recently felt better, happier.

After dinner, everyone slowly excused themselves to go home. George and Angelina, Percy and Penelope, Harry and Ginny… all were gone by 9 pm. Ron excused himself shortly afterward. Hermione thought should probably leave, too, but she was enjoying her conversation with Molly, Arthur, and Charlie, and she knew it might be several years before she saw Charlie again.

Ron's second oldest brother had always been rather in tune with her, and, sensing her hesitation to leave when Molly and Arthur stood to clear the table, Charlie turned to her. "Please stay, Hermione. I haven't seen you in forever, and it seems like you're enjoying being here. Let's help mum and dad clean up quickly, and we can all spend some time together before you leave."

Hermione pursed her lips, debating whether to take him up on his suggestion.

"Stop overthinking, love, just stay. I know you want to, and all of us would like you here longer."

She flinched when he called her 'love'. He'd always called her that, but it felt odd to hear it without Ron around.

Charlie noticed her flinch, and he furrowed his brows in question.

She shook her head and shrugged her shoulders; he backed off and walked toward the kitchen. She and Charlie had always been able to communicate without words, and tonight was no exception. Her magic flared briefly at the comfortable familiarity between them. _Not everything in my life has changed_ , she thought.

Charlie felt her magic flash and looked back at her briefly, his brows raised. She caught up with him, and they entered the kitchen and helped Molly and Arthur make quick work of the dinner clean up.

Kitchen spick and span, they all retreated to the den, glasses of Arthur's homemade meade in hand. They spent the next couple of hours chatting happily, and for those two hours, Hermione almost fooled herself into believing that nothing had changed in her life. Arthur continued to refill the meade, and by eleven o'clock, Molly and Arthur were yawning from both the meade and the late hour. They excused themselves to bed, leaving Hermione and Charlie alone in the den.

Charlie held up the remainder of a bottle of meade, a question on his face. "Another glass? We can chat a bit longer before you head home?"

Hermione held her glass out to him, and he poured liberally, probably more liberally than she needed at this point. They sat on the sofa next to each other, never running out of things to say. He caught her up on his current projects at the dragon reserve, and she filled him in on Harry's most recent investigation on illegal potions thefts and tampering at St. Mungo's. By the time she got toward the bottom of the glass of meade, she was happy, tired, and not in the mood to go home to her empty house.

Charlie started chatting about his excitement over the Reserve's new director. He could have become the director a decade ago, but he preferred working with dragons to managing people, so the Reserve had made him Director of Special Projects and paid him a salary almost equal to the Reserve director's. As he explained the new changes being made at the Reserve, Hermione set her almost-empty glass down on the coffee table and lay down in Charlie's lap.

He stroked her hair while he spoke, and she occasionally asked questions to keep him talking. His hands moved to her arms, running along them while he explained the new science behind dragon mating among different breeds. She felt sleepy and happy, ensconced in his lap and under the touch of his broad hands running along her arms. She turned on her side in his lap, wrapping her arms around his waist, and heard a brief intake of breath from him, which paused his monologue, and then he continued talking about the reserve.

His hands moved to her back, kneading the muscles there, and she relaxed further into him. Shortly, he stopped talking and sat in silence, working on her back. She was comfortable and relaxed, and his touch brought her happiness and familiarity. Hermione started to drift off in his lap, enjoying his scent as her nose pressed into his hard stomach. He smelled a bit like Ron, and more like his own fragrance. She breathed in deeply and murmured, "You smell so lovely, Charlie," without thinking about her words.

She felt him go still, before his hand resumed its stroking along her back, though lighter and less soothing. "Charlie?" she asked.

"Yes, love?"

She turned onto her back, looking up at him. He looked down at her, eyes dark in the low light, and she felt a zing of magic from him. She looked at him in question, and he brought his hand to her forehead, brushing her hair back and away from her face.

"I'm sorry you and Ron didn't make it, Hermione," he whispered.

"Me too," she breathed back. "We were in love once. But we grew apart. Maybe we could have saved it, if we'd realized it early enough. But we didn't. And by the time we realized, it was too late." She flicked her gaze back and forth between Charlie's eyes. "We're too different. It was too hard. We couldn't understand each other. Does that make sense?"

"Yes," Charlie answered. "I've always thought you were too different to be together. But it seemed to work for so long that I stopped questioning it." His touch on her arms became firmer. "I always thought you needed someone more… intense… than Ron. Someone who could match you in both intellect and passion. Someone who wouldn't expect you to hold back on your ambitions to fulfill what your husband envisioned for their family life and for the mother of their children.

"But, you both seemed happy, so I thought maybe I had just misread you both." His hands crept lower, rubbing her stomach now, and she wasn't sure how she felt about that. "I guess my initial instincts were right."

She looked up at him, into his hazel eyes, and felt his fingers against her stomach, and she realized Charlie had always been her favorite brother of Ron's because he was more like her than any of the other brothers. An ache grew low in her stomach as he continued to stroke her torso, and she felt ashamed over her sudden realization of her attraction to her ex-husband's brother.

As Charlie gazed down at her, eyes dark with what she now recognized clearly as desire, she wanted nothing more than for his fingers to creep under the hem of her shirt and to pull him down to her in a passionate kiss. They stayed there for at least a minute, looking into each other's eyes, trying to decide whether to move forward with their instincts or rein them in.

Finally, Hermione broke their gaze and stilled his fingers. She knew it would be good to try dating soon, but Charlie would _never_ be an option. Dating your ex-husband's brother was simply not acceptable. She sat up and moved his hands away from her, placing them back into his lap.

"I'm sorry, Charlie," she breathed. "Thank you for being you. You are more exquisite than you know."

His brows knit together, trying to understand if she was pulling him in or rejecting him.

"I… haven't tried dating yet since the divorce. But you're my brother-in-law."

His face twisted into disappointment, but he nodded in understanding. He leaned toward her. "You are exquisite, too, love." His face hovered inches from hers.

She debated internally, wanting so badly to close the distance but warring with herself over her obligations to Ron as the father of her children, before Charlie made the choice for her. He placed his lips against hers, and pulled her into a kiss that lit her body on fire. She'd had a crush on him as a teenager, before she and Ron had started dating, and this kiss was everything she had imagined it to be.

She poured everything into their kiss: her grief over the divorce, her loneliness, her gratitude for her time with Charlie tonight, her attraction to him. She knew this would be the first and last time they would do this, and Charlie was clearly aware of it as well. They kept their hands above the neck, entwining their fingers in each other's hair, and kissed for minutes, sweetly, desperately, resigned to its inevitable end. Pulling apart, they breathed heavily against each other and slowly sat back from each other.

Hermione whispered, "Thank you, Charlie. For everything."

"You're welcome, love." He smiled at her softly. "I'll always be here for you, no matter what happens in the future. Don't forget that, okay?"

"Thank you," she breathed. "I appreciate you more than you know, Charlie."

He smiled at her, and walked her over to the fireplace. They embraced, and she tilted her head up for one last kiss, running her fingers through his hair. His large hands splayed across her waist, and breaking apart, he breathed, "Bye, love."

"Bye, Charlie." She stepped into the fireplace, flooing home in a swirl of green flames.


End file.
